Herb (claymade)
Herb (ハーブ Haabu) is the leader of the Musk Dynasty as well as a cursed character. Profile Appearance Herb is clad in ornate scale armor, his long, black-and-white hair running down his back. While not as physically imposing as Lime, there is something in his stance, his bearing that leaves no doubt whatsoever in the mind as to who the most dangerous of the three is. Biography When Herb came to the Cat Café to speak with Cologne about the location of the Kettle of Liberation she agreed to tell him where it was only if Musk agreed to aid the Joketsuzoku in the fight against Metaria. The Dark Lords Strike Back Chapter One: Preparation When Herb heard that Brenda was being taken to various villages to show proof of the Dark Kingdom threat. He went to Joketsuzoku with Mint and Lime as he wanted to see her for himself. A furious Loofah told him that he had already agreed to help, but Herb replied that he wasn’t there for proof but simple curiosity. Brenda transformed back to her youma form and allowed Herb to examine her. Needless to say Herb was fascinated even more so when Brenda informed him that she was relatively weak as youma go. After completing his examination Herb informed the Matriarch she could on the full support of the Musk Dynasty when the time comes. His father would not be able to assist personally due to his old injuries, but Herb had full authority to lead his army into battle in his place. After the Matriarch thanked him the dragon prince left with his two companions. Chapter 2: Converging When the army was amassed they all went to Japan and gathered at the Nekohanten. When Herb noticed that Cologne had returned with Ranma he made his way towards them. Cologne began to warn him that now wasn’t the time for grudges, but Herb stopped her he was just there to request a formal match after the battle. He informed Ranma that since his lost he had been training intensively. Though worried at having to face an even stronger Herb Ranma accepted. There conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Xi Feng it took Ranma a second remember that a marriage interview was the reason Herb went to Jusenkyo in the first place. Herb then made the mistake of telling Ranma that in addition to his martial training he had undergone extensive marital training meaning that Ranma could no longer use that trump card. This caused Xi Feng to bring her tonfa down upon her husband’s skull. The leaders of the respective clans met to discuss strategy in one of the upper rooms. The Joketsuzoku Matriarch greeted Ranma as he and Cologne walked in. When Meihui arrived her eyes remained fastened directly on Cologne who met it without flinching. The two exchanged greeting relaxing the tension in room giving the Matriarch the opportunity to begin the meeting. After greeting everyone she had a younger Joketsuzoku bring in Altine so she could finally show them the danger they were facing. Each member of the war council sat in silence, digesting the story they had heard from Altine's artifact. The gravity of the situation they faced hung over them like a cloud. The leader of the Yakusai Poisoners was the first to speak up asking what the plan was. Cologne then proceeded to walk them through what they’d spent many months preparing for. Since the path leading to Dark Kingdom the army had to divide itself into three groups, each taking a different route. Group One consist of the Joketsuzoku, the Yakusai Poisoners, and the Silk Lotus Tribe, led by Loofah. Group Two consist of the Jiuxue Mystics, the Phoenix People, and Lao Shihong's mercenary clan, led by Meihui. Group Three consist of the Musk Dynasty, the Tian Wu Swordsmen, and the Monks of the Third Enlightenment, led by Prince Herb. The leaders talked and argued for hours after that, going over the details of the plan. Ranma followed along as best he could, but large-scale battle tactics had never been his area of expertise. Still, eventually the leaders reached something resembling agreement, and one by one they started to leave to inform their respective troops. Chapter Three: Assault After making their way through the portal Herb led his division of the allied army forward. As they raced down their assigned path, the dragon prince felt the battle-thirst rising up inside him. He increased his pace, eager to engage the enemy. Upon seeing a regiment of youma racing in at an angle to cut them off a feral smile spread across Herb's face. Once the youma blocked the exit to the chamber Herb shouted out his command and the order barely escaped his lips before the army attacked. First the wolf clan, then the hawks and finally the tigers. The few, disorganized attempts at retaliation by the youma were barely registered. The rest of Herb's battle group charged in after, exploiting the breach to full advantage. Herb, for his part challenged the enemy leader, who in response charged at him with a deep bellow. Herb met her with a lunge and a single swing of his blade, cutting through both the arms she raised in a block and removing her head from her shoulders. Seeing that his were quickly wiping out the last remaining resistance, while still more youma were fleeing in abject terror. He ordered them onward. Herb led his division as it burst out of the tunnel system and into the arching central cavern. The three tribes under his command bore down on the distant youma force, hundreds of weapons at the ready, hundreds of voices roaring out battle cries as they charged. Herb was shock to see that the youma army did not even turn to meet their attack. His suspicions were confirmed upon seeing Beryl surveying them all with a look of contemptuous disdain. He ordered Mint to attack who shot forward, hurling his knives as he went. The deadly blades shot toward her, but a few feet before they reached her they ricocheted away in bright flashes of energy as they struck an invisible barrier. The other warriors attacks had just as little effect, doing nothing to slow her as she continued to walk unconcernedly through the assault. When she got within close range she slammed her staff back down, tip-first, into the ground at her feet unleashing a shockwave. An army's worth of warriors rained down, crashing to the earth with cries of pain. Many of the hardier ones staggered to their feet which she responded with blast of concentrated magic. Herb attacked her upon coming to his senses. Magic and ki clashed against each other in blinding bursts of light as the Musk ruler hammered his foe's defenses from every direction. But she stood her ground without any sign of distress, glaring at him from behind her barrier as the constant explosions of energy sent stark shadows playing this way and that across her face. When the army regained they wasted no time in charging to assist their commander, only for her to slam the tip of her staff into the ground again. Herb managed to escape the spell's radius, but hearing the screams of the ones who didn’t he focused all of his fury into a single shot. The energy blast managed to make her barrier shake visibly, but it wasn’t strong enough to break through. For the first time Beryl had to exert herself which she congratulated Herb for, before pointing her staff at him. Nothing Herb did was able to put a dent into Beryl’s defenses so instead of he attempted to use his ki blade to pierce through it. Much too both their surprise he was able to pierce through her shield in a single, focused slash and reached almost to her neck where his blade hit a second shield, layered underneath the outer one, stopping his attack cold. Fury contorted Beryl’s features, and an inferno of chaotic energy appeared in each of her hands Herb was only saved by the timely intervention of Soap. Soap was about to rejoined the battle only to be stopped by Herb. He informed her that he figured out how to get past Beryl’s shield but they were going to have to combine their attacks. Herb returned to the battle only to find Mint completely motionless and Lime trying to crawl his way across the ground to reach Beryl, their attack taken up by other survivors of the three armies. In rage he stabbed his ki spear with all the power and momentum he could muster straight toward Beryl's heart. There was no time for her to do anything except focus all the power she could manage into her existing defenses. His strike speared directly into the magic barriers, piercing the first two layers as though they weren't even there. It wasn’t until the tip struck against the fifth shield that it finally stopped for good. She was about to gloat over her victory when Soap launched her own attack right through Herb’s shoulder bypassing Beryl's shields entirely as it sliced through his arm lengthwise, until it burst out of his palm. From there it tore through the remaining two shields, and then punched a hole straight through Beryl's torso, and for the first time in millennia—for the first time since the day she had challenged Queen Serenity herself—Beryl knew fear. In desperation Beryl teleported away from the battlefield, just as Herb was performing a follow up attack to finish her off. He felt the lack of resistance as his strike cut through the suddenly-empty air to carve into the stone floor beneath. He let out a roar of thwarted rage, sucking in deep breaths as his battle fury slowly subsided. Soap theorized that Beryl’s shield must have turned the shot causing her to pierce her lung instead of her heart. Herb’s only reply was to hope it was lethal enough before slicing off his now useless arm then cauterizing the wound. Once finished he turned o his men. Some were standing, some were limping, some were pulling themselves to their feet. Most of them were injured, many of them severely. In terms of numbers, the survivors were a pale shadow of the force they had started with, but their expressions showed no sign of fear, no indication of retreat. They were the faces of men who would fight to the death to finish the battle their comrades had died for, heedless of their own lives. Gesturing with his remaining arm Herb ordered them to attack and with a hoarse battle cry, the remnants of Herb's division charged onward toward the main battle line. Seeing a raging whirlwind explode to life far behind the enemy lines, stretching its howling vortex all the way up to the arched ceiling. He rushed forward to the mouth of the tunnel and took a position next to Loofah where he saw that it was Ranma. Loofah wondered what Ranma was doing as a Hiryu Shoten Ha wouldn’t do much from his position. Herb wondered the same thing however upon remembering his own battle with Ranma he told Loofah and everyone else to take cover. When she asked why he told her that it wasn’t just the Hiryu Shoten Ha. Category:The Dark Lords of Nerima Category:Characters Category:Dragon Clan